Chapter 53 Chapter 53 Yan Zhuo Grilled Fish Don’t forget this is a…
Uncle Cao had guessed correctly, however. There was a river not far from where they had camped. It wasn't too wide, nor was it very deep; calling it a creek would be more appropriate.
The banks are covered with lush vegetation, and the last rays of the setting sun shine on the water, shimmering with orange light.
Uncle Cao took a sharpened wooden stick as a harpoon, took off his shoes and socks and waded into the river. He had to hurry and catch as many fish as possible while he could still see clearly. When it got dark, it would be pitch black and he would not be able to catch any fish.
Yan Zhuo took the harpoon handed to him by Uncle Cao, hesitated for a moment, and then followed his example, taking off his shoes and socks and stepping into the water.
It was his first time fishing by himself, and the feeling was quite novel. The water, having been bathed in the sun all day, wasn't too cold. The round pebbles beneath his feet were just high enough to cover his calves, and the cool feeling was quite pleasant.
"Grandpa Cao, this way!" Zhao Mingsheng stood on the shore and saw bubbles on the water surface, which indicated that there might be fish below, so he immediately spoke out to remind him.
"Ah, no, no, Yan Zhuo is this way!"
She had good intentions, but in reality, by the time she saw the bubbles surface, the fish below had already swam away.
Due to her unintentional misleading, the two people in the water were fooled by her and they worked for a long time but didn't catch any fish.
Aunt Wang burst into laughter. Finally, she couldn't bear to watch any longer. She persuaded Zhao Mingsheng to come back to her side and said, "The fish ran away when you shouted. You should come with me to catch fish."
As she spoke, she pulled out a hemp rope net. The holes were a bit small compared to other nets. She'd been planning to use it to carry fruit, but it was just the right size for catching fish.
Zhao Mingsheng hadn't expected that her good intentions would lead to bad consequences. She smiled sheepishly, "Then Aunt Wang and I will go fishing. Good luck, Grandpa Cao and Yan Zhuo!"
Seeing Zhao Mingsheng's leaving back, the two men in the water breathed a sigh of relief.
Yan Zhuo was observing the shadows swimming in the water. His eyesight was excellent and he could see all the fast-swimming figures.
He clenched the wooden fork in his hand and seized the opportunity to quickly strike the shadow closest to him.
The wooden fork stirred up a splash of water, and some drops of water splashed on Yan Zhuo's face. He raised his hand and wiped them away silently, with an unprecedented solemnity on his face.
Because his attack actually missed...
There was no trace of fish on the empty harpoon. Even he couldn't believe it. He, who had never failed before, actually failed to catch a fish.
Yan Zhuo pursed his lips, gripped the harpoon tightly in his hand, and tried again.
The result was the same as last time, nothing but water.
Yan Zhuo stared blankly at the ripples on the water, and his heart began to be in turmoil.
He was thinking whether he should strengthen his training recently. If he faced the enemy on the battlefield, if he missed his target, he might be the one to be beheaded.
"Young man, this is your first time fishing!" Uncle Cao's laughing voice brought Yan Zhuo away from his thoughts.
Uncle Cao, who had been paying attention to the movements on his side, couldn't help but say, "Your aim is too accurate. This won't work!"
Can't aim too accurately?
A puzzled look appeared on Yan Zhuo's face.
Whether it was archery or throwing, all the exercises he had been doing since he was a child required him to hit the center of the bull's eye. This was the first time he had heard that one shouldn't aim too accurately.
Uncle Cao could tell at a glance that Yan Zhuo still didn't understand. He raised the harpoon in his hand and said, "Watch carefully. I'll show you!"
As the words fell, the harpoon in his hand fell out. He moved swiftly and without any hesitation, and the splashes of water he stirred up spread more than three feet.
Yan Zhuo stared at Uncle Cao's movements without blinking. If he guessed correctly, Uncle Cao's target should be the fish in front of his left.
Crooked.
Based on the position of the fish and the location of Uncle Cao's harpoon, Yan Zhuo came to this conclusion.
However, the facts once again broke his inference.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, Uncle Cao raised his harpoon again. A large black carp, two feet long, hung steadily on the tip, its tail flapping twice in struggle, flinging a few crystal-clear water droplets in the air.
What's going on?
Uncle Cao clearly didn't aim, so why was he able to catch the fish?
"Haha, young man, did you see it clearly?" Uncle Cao raised the trophy in his hand and shook it towards Yan Zhuo.
Of course Yan Zhuo saw it clearly. Not only did he see his movements clearly, he also remembered the position where his harpoon fell, which was two inches diagonally above the fish.
Uncle Cao explained to him, "You have good skills and speed, but water can be deceptive. If you aim too accurately, you'll likely miss."
He pointed to a floating seaweed and said, "Look closely at its stem. Isn't the underwater part much more offset than the above-water part?"
Yan Zhuo looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, it was just like how chopsticks break when dropped into a wine glass. He had forgotten such a simple truth.
Once you understand this principle, things become much simpler.
Yan Zhuo calmed down and stared intently at the figure swimming in the water. He found the right opportunity and, following Uncle Cao's instructions, launched the third attack without hesitation.
This time, the touch of the wooden fork was completely different from the previous two times. Yan Zhuo's mouth twitched slightly, and he confidently raised the wooden fork to show his results to Uncle Cao.
This time, there was also a big black carp stuck on the top of his harpoon, which was bigger than the one Uncle Cao had caught before.
"Wow, you're great, kid. You can learn it right away!" Uncle Cao couldn't help but sigh twice. It's different when you've been in the army.
On the other side, Zhao Mingsheng and Aunt Wang took their net bags and walked downstream of the river.
Aunt Wang found a branch of the river and piled up a sluice gate at the branch using the silt on both sides.
Zhao Mingsheng and Aunt Wang each soaked the net bag in the water, with the opening facing the gate where the water flowed.
After a while, Zhao Mingsheng felt that the net bag in his hand had sunk a little, as if something had swam into the net along the current.
"I caught it!" Zhao Mingsheng said happily, and couldn't wait to collect the net to see what fish he had caught.
Seeing the fish enter the net so quickly, Aunt Wang also showed her joy, but she was not in a hurry to close the net. She said calmly: "No hurry, no hurry, we only caught one, let's stay a little longer."
Zhao Mingsheng thought about it and realized that it was indeed troublesome to pull in the net and then let it go. It would be better to catch all the fish at once. So she stopped thinking and waited quietly.
The two chatted while waiting for the fish to enter the net. There seemed to be an unusually large number of fish today. After just a few words, Zhao Mingsheng felt the fishing net in his hand getting heavier little by little.
The joy on Aunt Wang's face became even more intense. She didn't expect that there were so many fish in the river.
They waited a little longer until the net bag became so heavy that Aunt Wang could hardly hold it, and then they put the net away.
The net bag was full of river fish, a good harvest. In addition to fish, there were also some river shrimps mixed in.
It was getting dark.
When Zhao Mingsheng returned to the upstream shore with the net bag, Yan Zhuo and Uncle Cao were already dressed, with seven or eight big fish in the backpack beside them.
If these fish weren't so timid, they would all run away if the noise was a little louder, and Yan Zhuo could have caught more.
When we returned to the campsite, everyone had already started a fire.
Uncle Cao was about to make a fire when Zhao Mingsheng called him and directly used two fish to exchange the flames from the person who had already made a fire next door, thus saving the time of making a fire.
Uncle Cao and Yan Zhuo caught big fish with few bones and thick skin, which tasted better when grilled.
In the net bag are some small crucian carps more than a foot long, as well as yellow croaker, which are perfect for making fish soup.
Uncle Cao built a stove out of stones, just like he had done at noon, to hold the iron pot, and he also built another fire to roast the fish.
On the way back, they picked some wild fruits. Zhao Mingsheng washed the sour and sweet fruits, cut them into slices, and stuffed them into the belly of the cleaned herring.
Then he tied up the fish with a wooden stick and handed it to Yan Zhuo, asking him to roast it over the fire.
"Remember to turn it over frequently, otherwise it will burn." After she gave these instructions, she suddenly remembered the bowl of black rice porridge.
Zhao Mingsheng was a little uncertain. Is it really okay to let this man, who can cook white rice porridge into black rice porridge, grill fish?
She thought about it and decided to give up for the sake of everyone's safety.
"Why don't we let Uncle Cao grill it?"
"It's okay if you don't need it, leave it to me." Yan Zhuo was eager to try, and put the fish on the fire.
Zhao Mingsheng looked at the fish body that was quickly engulfed by flames and hurriedly stopped it: "No need to roast it in the fire! Lift it higher and a little closer to the fire."
Yan Zhuo obediently raised the wooden stick in his hand.
Poor Yuyu finally escaped from the sea of fire. Zhao Mingsheng now regretted very much why he handed the fish to him.
Uncle Cao sat aside, watching them with a smile and said, "Just let him grill it. It's just grilling a fish, it's very simple. Why does an old man like me need to help?"
Zhao Mingsheng: If you had seen his black rice porridge, you wouldn't say that...
She tried to make more effort, "Then I'll trouble Grandpa Cao to keep an eye on you for a while."
Uncle Cao waved his hand and said exaggeratedly, "Okay, I'll watch over here. You go and cook. I'm starving."
It just so happened that Aunt Wang had also processed the small fish and was waiting for her to put them in the pot.
Zhao Mingsheng had no choice but to hope that Uncle Cao would take better care of the poor grilled fish.
After heating the iron pan, Zhao Mingsheng put the crucian carp and yellow croaker into the pan and fried them. Driven by the high temperature, the fish skin began to curl up and emit bursts of burnt aroma.
Zhao Mingsheng saw that it was almost done, so he added water to the pot and started stewing.
After the water boils, milky white soup quickly boils in the pot.
"What do we do with these river shrimp?" Aunt Wang asked, holding the processed river shrimp. "Simmer them with the fish soup?"
Zhao Mingsheng shook his head. Although river shrimp is also a kind of river food, if it is stewed with fish, the taste will easily change. Not only will it lose its freshness, but it will also be tainted with a fishy smell.
"Let's grill these shrimp and make them slate-salted prawns!"
She brought a stone slab, placed it on the fire, poured all the river shrimps onto the slab, arranged them neatly, and sprinkled a thin layer of wood salt tree powder on them.
The hot stone slab quickly changed the shell of the river shrimp from green to red.
Seeing that the slate salted prawns were almost done, but Yan Zhuo's grilled fish was still not moving, Zhao Mingsheng couldn't help but ask:
"Yan Zhuo, is the fish ready?"
"It seems... not yet." Yan Zhuo's tone was a little hesitant.
Zhao Mingsheng calculated the time and thought the fish should have been grilled a long time ago. Why did Yan Zhuo say it wasn’t grilled yet?
An ominous premonition gradually arose in her heart.
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